In his second season at Washington State, and despite an improved offensive line and running back corps, Leach still directs an offense living up to its “Air Raid” nickname. Even when defenders know what’s coming – in 2008 his Texas Tech team won 11 games while throwing 67 percent of the time -- it works.

No team has attempted more passes than WSU’s 339 this season, and the Cougars are 4-2, including a 2-2 Pac-12 record that started with a stunning road upset of USC.

“It’s one of those things that’s confoundingly simplistic,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said. “They can lock you into something and they’ll do it till you bleed.

“When they’re rolling, they’re rolling.”

When the one-dimensional Cougars hit trouble, however, they come to an immediate halt.

Though WSU quarterback Connor Halliday is as prolific as any Leach quarterback – he’s the only person in FBS to throw for 500 yards in a game this season – he’s more error-prone, too, by throwing an FBS-worst 13 interceptions. During Leach’s 10-season run at Texas Tech, his quarterbacks averaged 2.2 interceptions per 100 passes. Halliday’s interception rate is 3.8 percent. Forcing him into continued turnovers is a key for Oregon’s defense.

“Against Oregon State he was fine just chunking along, taking short-yardage gains and maybe taking a shot down the field once in a while and as soon as Oregon State got up, that’s when the wheels kind of fell off,” said Brian Anderson, a contributor to the WSU blog Cougcenter.com, which has detailed Halliday’s season in detail. “They were ‘what are you thinking?’ kind of balls.”

Halliday’s three interceptions on consecutive possessions against Oregon State last week turned just a seven-point deficit into a rout but were only the most recent examples of how his struggles are exacerbated when trailing -- and oddsmakers expect the 39-point underdog Cougars to trail a lot Saturday.

When trailing, his interception rate jumps to 6.5 percent as his completion percentage dips to 52.3 percent, symptoms of what Anderson calls “hero-ball.”

“He tries to score 14 points on every pass, and it’s just not possible,” Anderson said.

It started in the season-opening loss at Auburn. After the Tigers kicked a field goal to take a seven-point lead into the final quarter, Halliday led the Cougars within eight yards of a tying touchdown with 4 minutes remaining. Then he threw an interception. He’s thrown four picks this season when down seven points or fewer.

That trend offsets Halliday’s otherwise positive developments this season. His overall completion percentage has never been higher at 63.9 percent, and an incredible 10 WSU receivers have catches in five straight games. Vince Mayle and Dom Williams are Halliday’s go-to targets when throwing deep, but Gabe Marks is the all-around favorite, Anderson said.

“You can look at a route and say wow, that was not the right throw but maybe the guy broke the pattern off completely,” Helfrich said of Halliday. “He’s been a very efficient passer from what we’ve seen from him in the past.”

Though at times Leach has chastised the QB in postgame press conferences doing too much, he defended Halliday after the OSU loss.

“We had adversity, and it certainly wasn't just Connor,” Leach said. “He played two-thirds of the game real well. If he can play two-thirds of the game, he can do it a full game."

UO’s secondary starters have been tested a full game just once, though all-American candidate cornerbacks Terrance Mitchell and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu are up for the challenge.

Mitchell has three interceptions this season, and this week Washington coach Steve Sarkisian called Ekpre-Olomu “probably the best defensive player we've seen this season." The UO secondary has drawn a pass interference penalty in each game but one.Ekpre-Olomu said the receivers’ precision on tricky, shorter routes make this a particularly difficult group to cover.

“The secondary is going to have a lot of opportunities to make big plays,” Ekpre-Olomu said. “If we have a great pass rush and good coverage in the secondary we’ll be able to make a lot of plays but if we’re only doing one of those, Halliday is good enough to make us pay.”